There’s a total of £540million in the pot over three years available to eligible homeowners in England and Wales.

Households are granted up to £7,600 to improve their home’s energy efficiency, which includes £500 if you have moved into a new home within the last 12 months..

The biggest grants are for homes most difficult to treat but which could also benefit most from energy efficiency measures.

There are also funds available to households through the Energy Companies Obligation - or ECO. This is run through the energy suppliers and is targeted at vulnerable or low income households although all households may apply. The scheme gives out funding for energy efficiency measures worth £1.3billion every year.

ECO schemes are run differently from supplier to supplier - so it is worth checking with yours what you might be eligible for.

Residents in Scotland can access the Green Homes Cashback scheme - which works in a very similar way the the Green Deal.

There is certainly a lot of money sloshing about designed to help us cut our energy consumption.

Because there are several different pots with their own specifications and rules, it can be difficult to work out what to apply for.

The best thing to do is apply for a Green Deal Assessment, which will involve an expert inspecting your property and making recommendations on the energy efficiency measures from which it could benefit.

After this you will be in a better position to see whether what you require can be funded or subsidised by the Green Deal, ECO or another fund. The assessor should also be able to help advise on this.

An assessment costs around £120, but you can get a £100 rebate at the moment if you choose to go ahead with any of the recommendations.

Solid wall insulation

If your home is eligible, you could claim up to £6,000 for installing solid wall insulation under the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund.

Alternatively you may also be able to get solid wall insulation for free or at considerably reduced rate if you apply for it through ECO. However you can't combine the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund with ECO so it's worth checking which will offer you the best deal.

If your home was built before 1920, the chances are you could benefit from solid wall insulation.

Cavity walls are made of two layers with a small gap or cavity in between. The gap helps keep the warm in and the cold out. But solid walls have no such gap so heat is transferred much more easily from inside to out.

Solid wall insulation involves adding another layer to external or internal walls to reduce heat loss to the outside.

You can install internal wall insulation – which involves fitting rigid insulation boards to the wall – or external wall insulation – which involves fixing a layer of insulation material to the outside wall, before painting, tiling or pebble-dashing over it again.

This is generally not a simple process, but the cost savings on energy bills are transformative.

What can you do? A few changes to your home could save you a lot on your energy bills

HOMEOWNERS CAN ALSO CLAIM UP TO £1,000 FOR INSTALLING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING TWO MEASURES THROUGH THE GREEN DEAL HOME IMPROVEMENT FUND:

A condensing gas boiler (on mains gas)

Boilers account for around 55 per cent on what the average household spends on energy bills, according to the Energy Saving Trust, so it can be worth getting the right one.

Someone with an old gas boiler with no controls who replaces it with an A-rated high-efficiency condensing boiler with a full set of heating controls would see their bills drop by as much as £305 a year.

Condensing gas boilers are particularly efficient because they recover energy from any water vapour that is created when the gas cools.

Double glazing, if it’s replacing single glazing

Depending on the type of property, you could save up to £175 a year by switching to double glazing.

You’re also likely to considerably reduce your carbon footprint and the noise levels from outside could go down as well.

If you live in a period home or in a conservation area and therefore cannot install double glazing, you may be able to opt for secondary glazing instead.

This is a second pane of glass and frame fitted inside the existing window. It won’t be as well sealed as a double glazing unit, according to the Energy Saving Trust, but it will be cheaper to fit and will save energy.

Replacement doors

Doors can lose heat through air leakage and conduction, especially if it’s cold outside.

Replacing or modifying doors can help keep the warmth in.

Cavity wall insulation

If your house was built after the 1920s it is likely to have cavity walls.

This means there is a gap between the two layers of your walls, which can be filled with insulation.

An installer would drill small holes around the outside wall of your home and then, using specially designed equipment, blow insulation into the cavity. Once the insulation is in, the holes in the brickwork are filled so they are barely noticeable. It can take around two hours for a house with easily accessible walls, and cut bills by £250 for a detached house.

The upfront cost of cavity wall insulation is a few hundred pounds, but you would more than likely recoup this within five years thanks to the savings on your energy bills. With the government grant added in, you would pay off the upfront cost in even less time.

Floor insulation

Putting insulation under floorboards on the ground floor can save around £60 - £75 a year on energy bills, and sealing gaps between floors and skirting boards can help too.

You don’t need to insulate upstairs rooms if they’re above heated spaces such as the living room, because this will help to warm the upstairs rooms slightly as well. But any rooms that are above others that are unheated could benefit from floor insulation so that the heat isn’t lost to spaces where it won’t be used.

Flat roof insulation

Flat roofs can be insulated by putting a layer of rigid insulation board on top of its weatherproof layer or on top of the timber roof surface with a new weatherproof layer on top of the insulation.

It’s a good one to get done when you’re having work done to the roof anyway.

If you have your flat roof replaced, you have to have it insulated to comply with building regulations.

Room-in-roof insulation

If you use your loft as a living space, you can insulate the roof instead of the floor by fixing insulation boards between the roof rafters.

These are cut carefully so they fit snugly between the rafters.

Replacement warm air unit

Warm air systems heat your home by pumping warm air through vents in ceilings or walls. The air is heating by a warm air unit, which burns gas and the heat mixes with air and is circulated through ducts.

Making changes: Could a new condensing gas boiler help to reduce your energy bills?

Replacement storage heaters

New storage heaters often come with improved controls, so you can heat a room more quickly or keep it cool when you’re not using it.

They can be pricey, but cheaper to install than a new central heating system.

Many households with storage heaters choose to replace them in the end with a boiler or heat pump with radiators and underfloor. This is because storage heaters use electricity, which is the most expensive and carbon intensive heating fuels available in the UK, according to the Energy Saving Trust.

Flue water heat recovery units

Even the most efficient boilers on the market are not completely efficient because they lose heat in the waste flue gas.

A flue gas heat recovery unit captures the waste flue gas, which arises from the combustion of gas in your boiler, and uses it to preheat the cold water about to enter the boiler, thereby lowering the amount of energy needed to warm the water to the required level.

Installing one costs a few hundred pounds, but in the right kind of property the savings to energy bills will make up the outlay.

In the bank: Switching to more efficient boilers and appliances can significantly reduce energy bills

Waste water heat recovery systems

These recover the heat used when you have a shower to reuse it again. Just think about how much energy is used when you run the shower only for the water to go down the drain. With a waste water heat recovery system, the water is not recycled, but the heat is, so that next time you go to use hot water it takes less energy to get it up to the temperature that you require.

Renewable heating

If your home is off grid, you could be eligible for financial incentives to switch to a form of renewable heating,

These include air-source heat pumps, ground and water source heat pumps, biomass-only boilers and pellet stoves and solar thermal panels.

Your home must have loft or cavity wall insulation to be eligible. If you don't have these, you can apply for them through the Green Deal.

If you meet the conditions of the scheme, you'll receive quarterly payments for seven years based on the amount of clean, green renewable heat you make at your home.

HOW CAN I GET IT?

First you will need to get a Green Deal assessment done on your home. This is where a qualified and registered person comes round and looks at your home and advises on what could be done to make it more energy efficient.

To apply for money back through the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund, you would then decide which home improvements you
would like to go ahead with and agree quotes with a registered Green Deal provider.

Extra cash back: If you have moved home within the last 12 months, you could be eligible for another £500 off the cost of installing energy efficiency measures

Next you apply for a money back voucher online or by phone – before the work starts. The provider may be able to do this for you if you would rather.

Once you have received the voucher, you must have the improvements installed and make your claim within six months.

Once you know what energy efficient measures your home requires, you can also approach your energy supplier to see what they may be able to help with. You may be able to combine savings through ECO and the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund.

WHAT IS MY DEADLINE?

You’ll
need to get going.

The Green Deal Home Improvement Fund launched last week and the current rates are guaranteed only for the first £50million and up to £120m is available until March 2015.

For ECO you have longer.

WHAT WILL IT COST ME?

While the money back vouchers can add up to several thousand pounds, it will not cover the full cost of the works.

For a start, money back vouchers are limited to two
thirds of your installation costs. This is to avoid giving large
cash back payments who are paying little or nothing towards the cost of
installing measures because they are already being subsidised.

Homeowners have to pay the difference between the full cost and the voucher payments. If you do not have this much money to pay upfront, the Green Deal does offer a financing programme, although you may be able to find more competitive rates elsewhere.

The typical loan rate is around 6.9 per cent. However the scheme seeks to ensure that the estimated savings on energy bills will equal or exceed the cost of the work.

The loan stays with the house, not with the current homeowner, so if you move the loan will be passed on to the next household.

The cost is taken off the savings made each month to energy bills, so you shouldn't feel the extra cost on a monthly basis.

Financing for ECO works slightly differently and varies from supplier to supplier. Some suppliers will pay the full costs, while others will ask households to pay a proportion as well. Households that are not able to pay their share upfront can apply for Green Deal financing to help cover the costs.

AM I ELIGIBLE?

If you are improving a domestic property in England and Wales and are paying for most of the work to be done, the chances are you are eligible for Green Deal Finance. Households, landlords and tenants in England and Wales, also have access to the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund.

The scheme is available to all households, not just those considered vulnerable or in fuel poverty.

Just make sure that you apply for the cash back before you start the work.

Households in England and Wales should apply to the New Green Deal, and there is a similar scheme running in Scotland called the Green Homes Cashback Scheme.

The ECO scheme has many categories for eligibility. It is worth contacting your own supplier to see whether you are eligible for any assistance.

Householders can find out more by calling the Energy Saving Advice Service (ESAS) on 0300 123 1234 or by visiting the Green Deal website: www.gov.uk/greendeal

Households in Scotland can search the Energy Saving Trust Grants and Discounts Database to find out what they may be eligible for: http://gidscotland.est.org.uk/